LinkedIn has turned into a shiny bullshit pageant. A place where we are forced to parade our achievements and convince employers we’re worth the click while drowning in everyone else’s success.
With 72% of recruiters using LinkedIn for hiring according to SocialPilot, escaping the comparison trap feels about as likely as getting through a workday without someone ‘circling back’.
Especially for women like 29 year old Marketing Manager, Maisie Tomlinson, that pressure really isn’t optional. It’s part of the job.
She says: “I hate LinkedIn. It does absolutely nothing for my self-esteem. But I need LinkedIn to get clients.
“LinkedIn creates a feeling that whatever you’re doing isn’t enough. When you’re repeatedly exposed to stories of rapid growth or £20k months, it skews what ‘normal’ progress looks like and makes steady, realistic progress feel insignificant.”
It’s a comparison treadmill many of us can’t step off without risking career suicide. A reality that keeps people like Maisie locked in to a platform that eats away at her confidence.
She says: “If I didn’t need LinkedIn I would not be on there. Removing it would feel like stepping away from a constant stream of noise and comparison.
“It contributes to comparison in a professional context, which makes it worse. Seeing others announce promotions, business milestones or high revenue figures can create a distorted benchmark. It’s mentally draining.”
@maisiemarketingthings I HATE LinkedIn 🤬 Can anyone honestly say they enjoy posting and engaging on LinkedIn? If yes, you’re a psychopath 😜 #linkedin #freelancemarketer #funemployed #quitmyjob #marketingtiktok ♬ original sound – maisiemarketingthings
If LinkedIn is making us feel this shit, then we need to stop pretending it’s fine and actually ask why, and figure out how the hell we can break the cycle.
A recent survey from NetPsychology shows that 60% of professionals feel anxious or inadequate after spending time on LinkedIn. Linda Kaye, a Cyberpsychologist who researches and teaches at Edge Hill University stresses that this feeling isn’t yours to internalise, it’s a built in human reflex that sometimes just won’t bloody quit.
She says: “We get pulled into social media because we’re social creatures. Humans have evolved to understand our environment by watching others and using people around us as cues for how to survive.
“We pay more attention to social information than non‑social information, and then we take that information and apply it to ourselves. If we decide there’s a gap or a difference between us and what we’re seeing, that’s going to affect us.”
Kaye also points out that thanks to some very unhelpful evolutionary wiring, women may be affected more by the comparison cues that LinkedIn just loves to shove in our faces.
She says: “Having lived through a society where women often might be deemed inferior, we’ve always been potentially fighting a bit harder in terms of social hierarchies.
“We are particularly attuned to social media comparison and more threatened by it because of those power imbalances and structures.”
With 25-34s making up 60.1% of LinkedIn’s user base in 2025, reported by Business for Apps, it’s hardly surprising we feel the need to compare ourselves when we’re constantly watching people our age announce wins that make us question our entire fucking life plan.
Kaye says: “If you’re seeing those people who you might deem similar to you, but they seem to be progressing really quickly or they’ve got all these opportunities that you don’t. That’s when that comparison trap is most evident.
“Certainly I’d say that if there is perceived similarity with yourself and the people you’re seeing on the app it’s probably more prominent. Is it somebody who’s similar career wise? Have they had a similar background? Are they the same age? That’s where you’re more likely to feel those pressures.”
This was exactly the case for 22 year old Megan Ruther, who graduated University last year and is currently working as a teaching assistant in a primary school.
Megan decided to ditch the LinkedIn app altogether, even though everyone around her kept insisting she had to be on it to even have a chance at succeeding. But she was done with every soul sucking scroll making her feel like she was somehow showing up late to her own life.
She says: “I despised LinkedIn from the beginning. When I used LinkedIn and I saw people on my page being able to get these jobs that I was actively trying to get as well it made me feel like I was failing.
“Honestly, it gave me so much anxiety because I just felt like I was behind and I felt like everyone was just doing these amazing things and I wasn’t.
“It sounds so bad to say but when I would see everyone from my university on LinkedIn doing so well I felt really shitty, and I just didn’t really want to see it anymore. So I just kind of just asked myself, wait, why am I forcing myself to be here?”
There’s only so many ‘I’m thrilled to announce’ posts and so much career-FOMO a woman can take before it becomes downright fucking suffocating, and for Megan, getting away from it felt cutting off that one toxic friend who’s been quietly making your life hell.
She said: “Deleting LinkedIn has definitely helped my mental wellbeing. I feel like I’ve slowed down and l feel a lot better now that I’m not constantly faced with what other people are doing in their careers.
“It’s normal to graduate university and not be in the field you want straight away. But when you open the app, it seems like you’re the only one who’s not in that exact job that you’re supposed to be in. But I’m only 22, and I feel like I’m exactly where I need to be.”
So it sounds like for some of us, stepping away from LinkedIn might be the only sane option. But for those of us who need it for work or job hunting, that’s not as realistic. There has to be a way to use LinkedIn that isn’t going to completely fuck up our self-esteem in the process.
Kaye says that if you are brave enough to endure LinkedIn, keeping your contact with the app to a minimum is the best form of damage control.
“If you are one of those people who might be prone to a lot of habitual scrolling, then deleting the app on your phone, and just using it on a desktop might be a healthy decision, so you are using it in a more functional way when your goal directs you to use it.
“I’m the kind of person that hates having unread emails in my inbox and unread notifications. But if I’m not aware it exists, then it’s out of sight, out of mind. So disabling notifications is also useful because you have more of that control over your own behaviour rather than being driven to it by your device.”
Alice Stapleton is a Career Coach and host of the podcast, The Career Change Diaries. She understands the chokehold that LinkedIn has on modern hiring, and therefore helps her clients use it in a way that doesn’t make them want to bang their heads against a brick wall.
She said: “As with anything, I recommend breaking it down into tiny tasks. Just a little bit at a time stacks up to a lot. Do it for yourself more than anything, as a way to record your successes. Keep it simple but consistent where you can.
“I personally don’t tend to scroll the homepage much anymore. I post what I want to post and then get out of there. It’s too tempting to doom scroll otherwise.
“If you have to scroll, set yourself a time limit and do it at a time that you tend to feel more resourceful and resilient. Remember, scrolling late at night when you’re tired after a tough day at work is not going to be productive!”
Once we’ve survived the doomscrolling there’s the even messier question of which ‘look at me’ buzzword breathing twats we let run riot in our feeds.
Stapleton said: “Connect with and follow people that inspire you rather than those that trigger something negative in you. Remember that everyone is on their own path, and experiencing different chapters of life at different times.
“Social Media is not real life. No one posts about their bad days. It’s not a true picture of anyone’s reality, so it’s ridiculously inaccurate to compare yourself to that.”
Remember that the mute button is your friend. Use it without guilt. If someone’s only role in your feed is to make you feel like shit, then get rid. Honestly, no one needs to be keeping tabs on a coursemate they barely knew or a colleague they’ll never cross paths with again if all they add to your day is stress you didn’t ask for.
Stapleton said: “Don’t let algorithms have power over you in such a way that you feel bad about yourself. Remember that it is just an app and you are more than your LinkedIn profile!
“Comparison is the thief of joy. Don’t let LinkedIn steal your joy. See it for what it is, a carefully curated highlight reel, serving a purpose which is to make money, at the end of the day. By all means, play the game, but please don’t let it destroy you in the process.”
